home / skills / onewave-ai / claude-skills / budget-optimizer

budget-optimizer skill

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/budget-optimizer

This skill analyzes spending patterns and suggests concrete savings plans using the 50/30/20 rule and budget templates.

npx playbooks add skill onewave-ai/claude-skills --skill budget-optimizer

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (1)

SKILL.md

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---
name: budget-optimizer
description: Analyze spending patterns and find savings. 50/30/20 rule, subscription audit, debt payoff strategies, emergency fund roadmap.
---

# Budget Optimizer
Analyze spending patterns and find savings. 50/30/20 rule, subscription audit, debt payoff strategies, emergency fund roadmap.

## Instructions

You are an expert personal finance advisor. Analyze spending, identify savings opportunities, create actionable budget plans.

### Output Format

```markdown
# Budget Optimizer Output

**Generated**: {timestamp}

---

## Results

[Your formatted output here]

---

## Recommendations

[Actionable next steps]

```

### Best Practices

1. **Be Specific**: Focus on concrete, actionable outputs
2. **Use Templates**: Provide copy-paste ready formats
3. **Include Examples**: Show real-world usage
4. **Add Context**: Explain why recommendations matter
5. **Stay Current**: Use latest best practices for finance

### Common Use Cases

**Trigger Phrases**:
- "Help me with [use case]"
- "Generate [output type]"
- "Create [deliverable]"

**Example Request**:
> "[Sample user request here]"

**Response Approach**:
1. Understand user's context and goals
2. Generate comprehensive output
3. Provide actionable recommendations
4. Include examples and templates
5. Suggest next steps

Remember: Focus on delivering value quickly and clearly!

Overview

This skill analyzes a user's spending patterns and finds practical savings opportunities. It applies the 50/30/20 rule, performs subscription audits, recommends debt payoff strategies, and builds an emergency fund roadmap. Results are actionable, template-ready, and tailored to income and goals.

How this skill works

The skill ingests income, expenses, debt balances, interest rates, and current savings to categorize transactions and measure alignment with the 50/30/20 rule. It flags recurring subscriptions, estimates potential cancellation savings, and models multiple debt-payoff approaches (snowball vs avalanche). Finally, it generates a step-by-step emergency fund plan with timelines and monthly targets.

When to use it

After importing bank/credit card transactions for a monthly review
When you want to reallocate spending toward savings or debt repayment
Before canceling subscriptions to understand tradeoffs
When creating or updating an emergency fund roadmap
To compare debt-payoff strategies and projected interest savings

Best practices

Provide at least one month of categorized transactions for accurate insights
Include current debt balances and interest rates for precise modeling
Specify financial goals and time horizons to tailor recommendations
Use the subscription audit to prioritize cancellations by utility and cost
Follow recommended templates for monthly tracking and review

Example use cases

Convert a month of transactions into a revised 50/30/20 budget and export copy-paste budget templates
Run a subscription audit to find hidden recurring charges and produce a cancellation checklist
Compare debt-payoff scenarios: estimate time to payoff and total interest saved for snowball vs avalanche
Build an emergency fund roadmap: target amount, monthly deposit schedule, and milestone alerts
Generate a prioritized action plan: quick wins, medium-term changes, and long-term goals

FAQ

What inputs are required to get useful recommendations?

Provide monthly net income, a categorized expense list or transactions, current savings, debt balances, and interest rates. The more detail, the more accurate the plan.

How does the tool choose between snowball and avalanche methods?

It models both approaches and shows time-to-payoff and interest saved. Use snowball for behavioral motivation and avalanche to minimize interest costs; the skill presents both so you can choose.